Bling, Bling Ring ~ Tutorial

About a year ago I won a ring from my Mary Kay Director. It was a handmade ring, and I later found out that she paid $40 for it. Well, it broke... and eventually hers broke too. I love making jewelry so I studied the ring and then decided I could make one myself.

I modified it so that it wouldn't break. The problem with a ring like this is that if the band breaks it all falls apart. (Which is what happened to ours.) SO I made the top of the ring (with all the beads) with sturdy beading thread and then tied it off. Then I made the band separately using an elastic(!) beading thread. This way, if the band breaks I only need to replace the band. Yay!

Want to make one?? Here's my first shot at a tutorial.
Comments, congratulations, and critiques are welcome!!!!

MATERIALS:
- 36 ~ 4mm Swarovski Crystal Bicones (I like AB faceted)

- 24 ~ 4mm Fire Polished rounds "FPR" (they are actually more oval than round, and THAT is key)

- around 90 ~ size 15 seed beads (tiny!)

- beading thread
- elastic beading thread

- beading needles (I use both sturdy needs and bendy wire needles)

- clear nail polish or flexible glue

- scissors

1. Cut your bead thread the length of your 'wing span' ~ from hand to hand with your arms straight out.

2. The base of the ring is done with the "right angle weave" stitch. I'm probably not doing it exactly right.... but below is how it makes sense to me.

3. String 4 of the FPR onto your thread. Tie a knot at the end of the thread to make a circle with the 4 beads. Go through all 4 beads again to reinforce the circle.

4. String 3 FPR. Send your needle through the opposite end of the bead that the thread is coming from. Again, making another circle. (In the photo you can see that the thread is coming out of the bottom of the bead, so the needle is coming through the top of the bead.)

5. Now you have two circles next to eachother. Go through each bead in the circle again to reinforce. End with the thread coming out the top of the rightmost bead (Pictured below)

6. String 3 FPR. Bring your needle up through the rightmost bead to create another 'circle'. Go back through the entire circle to reinforce. End with your thread coming out of the left side of the bottom bead. Tip: throughout this process make sure your thread is always tight. There should be no slack in the thread at all.

7. String 3 FPR. Put your needle through the bottom bead from right to left to create a 4th circle BELOW the previous circle. Go through the circle to reinforce. End with your thread coming out the bottom of the leftmost bead.

8. String 2 more FPR. This time go through the bottom bead of the top middle circle. Continue the circle with the leftmost bead of the circle on the right.... I know, words are complicated, hopefully the picture helps! Again, reinforce the circle. End with the thread coming up out of the leftmost bead of the new circle.

9. Now take your thread through the bottom bead of the top circle. It will be exiting to the left of the bottom bead of the top circle.

10. String 2 FPR. Continue the circle with the leftmost bead of the circle to the right. Reinforce the circle by going through all four beads. End with your needle coming out the right side of the bottom bead of the new circle.

11. Are you getting the idea??? Here are pictures for the next few circles. It's basically 9 circles ~ 3x3 with all of the center beads sharing circles.

12. Now that you have your 3x3 grid of circles we can begin the top!!!! String 1 Swarvoski Bicone, 1 seed bead, 1 Swarvoski Bicone

13. Put your needle in diagonally from where it is exiting. In the picture above the thread is exiting the bottom right of the circle; so the need enters the top left of the circle.

14. The two bicones should sit on top of the 'circle' evenly. Again, be sure the thread is tight! You basically make an 'X' with the bicones over the top of the circle.

15. String 1 bicone. Put your needle through the Tiny seed bead that was previously strung. Pull tight!!!!!

16. String 1 bicone. Finish your 'X' by putting your needle through the topmost bead of the FPR circle.

17. Tada! You now have your first 'X' of pretty bicones! Continue this 'X' process on top of all of the 'circles'.

18. When you are done you'll have 9 'X's of 4 bicones each with a seed bead in the center.

19. Reinforce the top. From the bottom right corner of the entire ring go through the bicones/seed beeds diagonally to the top left corner of the square. You will not go through the FPR in this process.

20. Go through one FPR and then back up to the bicones/seed beads and again go diagonally through 2 'X's. Continue this process weaving through diagonally to connect all of the bicone 'X's.

21. Feed the thread through the ring to the beginning thread. Knot them together. Nail polish the knot to hold it (or use flexible glue). Weave the ends through some beads and then cut!

THE BAND

1. Take your elastic ~ a good stretchy elastic ~ and cut a piece about 10 inches.

2. Feed the elastic through one of the middle FPR as shown above.

3. String the seed beads on both ends. Fit it to your finger, about 40 beads per side.

4. After its the right size, feed one of the elastic ends through the FPR opposite the first one. Tie the two elastic ends together. Nail polish/glue the knot. Feed the ends through a few beads and then clip!

DONE!

There will be two elastic strands. I use the tiny seed beads because I think they are more comfortable on your finger. Bicones or even FPR under your finger aren't all that comfortable.

There are many variations.......
These are all tops that need bands.

I am not kidding when I say that EVERY time I wear one of these people stop me and ask where I got it!!!

Bling, Bling in the sun!


AND my favorite... the HUGE one....
I'm not sure I like this color design. I'm still playing around with it.


This is what the FPR structure looks like for the big ring.

This is your 'map' for making the base for the large ring. Each line is a FPR. Do a row of 3 circles and then a row of 4 circles, etc.

Turned to the side (like the map).

Thanks for reading this long tutorial... I hope it worked... again... comments, congratulations, and critiques are welcome!!! =)

~this tutorial was featured on Craft Gossip~

This tutorial is meant for personal use only.

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